Cuttlefish Tip Jar

EVENTS

The Miracle Butterfly!

I thought I saw a butterfly,Of all unlikely things,Pure white against the utter blackAn angel’s fragile wingsIt led me on to safetyThrough the darkness of the mine—A messenger from Heaven, itWas God’s Own Holy Sign—A tiny little butterflyTo show His Will Divine.

It fluttered in the mineshaftA half a mile below,Though how it could have gotten hereI think I’ll never know;It must have been a messengerSent down by God aboveAs a physical reminder Of the mercy of His loveWhile He chose, with His omnipotence,To give the rocks a shove.

Though He could have stopped the rockfallAnd could thus be held to blameWe will marvel at His mercyAnd sing praises to His name.Let our voices rise to Heaven;Let a joyous noise resound!Let us praise our God, almighty,For the butterfly we foundIn the middle of the chaosHalf a mile underground.

It must be boring. Boring, that is–boring a hole half a mile down to reach the trapped Chilean miners. So we get human interest stories, rather than “yup, the drill is still progressing.” The latest human interest story seems to have some people excited and others embarrassed–it is the story of “the miners and the butterfly“.

The story has morphed with the retelling. The original, best as I can tell, was written by Jorge Galeguillos, one of the trapped miners:

“We had been up to the workshop and as we were driving back down, a slab of rock caved in just behind us. It crashed down only a few seconds after we drove past. Just ahead I saw a white butterfly,” Galeguillos wrote in the two-page letter to his brother Eleodoro, also a miner.“After that, we were caught in an avalanche of dirt and dust. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. The tunnel was collapsing and the rocks buried a backhoe. A water tank lower down was almost completely buried too,” he continued.

By the time the story is told around firesides (the CNN reporter tells us), the butterfly was a guardian angel, bringing the miners to safety. In the comments to the CNN piece, we see that the miners stopped to watch the butterfly, and by doing so were saved from the collapse. Note that Galeguillos specifies that the cave-in was behind them, and the butterfly ahead, such that if they had stopped to watch, they’d have been crushed, but let’s not let that get in the way of a good story.

Details are irrelevant when it comes to miracles. And isn’t it miraculous that, as rock fell around them, eventually trapping them underground (where good planning of emergency shelters–not prayer–saved them), they saw… an insect?